Bow-coupling for carriage-tops.



E. R. RHODES. BOW COUPLING FOB. CARRIAGE TOPS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 16,1911.

Patented Sept. 24, 1912.

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E. R. RHODES. BOW COUPLING FOR CARRIAGE TOPS.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 16, 1911 Patented Sept. 24, 1912.

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- and also interfere with the manipulation permanently secured to the body or to the I UNITED STATES PTENT OFFICE.

ERNEST R. RHODES, OF FULTON, YORK. BOW-COUPLING FOR CARRIAGE-TOPS.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed May 16, 1911.

1,039,195. Patented Sept. 24, 1912.

Serial No. 627,504.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST R. RHODES, of Fulton, in the county of Oswego, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bow-Couplings for Carriage Tops, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying I drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to certain improvements in bow connections for carriage tops, canopies, and other coverings such as are commonly employed on automobiles, boats and similar vehicles and is particularly useful in connection with automobile tops adapted to cover two or more seats when adjusted for use or when not in use as a covering to be folded back of the rear seat.

The connections commonly employed for attaching the bows to the body of the vehicle involve the use of fixed sets of members usually secured to the sides of the front and rear seats and additional sets of movable members secured to the pendant arms of the bows, those of one set being provided with bolts or studs adapted to enter apertures in those of the other set and both sets are usually held in operative relation by separate nuts, cotter k ys or pins which .not only render the operation of placing the to in operative posit-ion upon the body of the vehicle and adjusting it to and from its folded and extended positions extremely inconvenient and troublesome, but also detracts from the general symmetry and neatpermitting the connecve freely one upon the other. Another object is to construct these interlocking connections in such manner that when the top is strapped either in its extended or folded position, it will be impossile to separate them and at the same time permitting such separation when the bows tions by simply lifting the bows vertically.

Other objects and uses connections will be brought out in the following description:

In the drawings :Figures 1 and 2 are side elevations of a portion of the body and top of a two-seated automobile showing my improved bow connections, the top being shown in its open or extended, position in Fig. 1 and in its folded position in Fig. 2. 4 are respectively a rear elevation and a side elevation of the rightconnection between the rear bow and seat, one of the open-sided shown in section in Fig. 4:.

section of the connection between the righthand bow and adjacent side of the front seat, showing also a portion of the adjacent front brace bow and its connection With the upright. Figs. 7 and 8 are sectional views taken respectively on lines 7-7, Fig. 4 and 8-8 Fig. 5. ig. 9 is a side elevation of the connections for the right-hand side of ness of appearance of this portion of the the front and rear bow sections as connected body by reason of the projecting ends of the and folded. bolts, nuts or keys which are more or less In order that my invention may be clearly liable to catch onto theclothing of the pasunderstood I have shown a portion of a sengers in getting into and out of the vehicle body -1- and top -2- of an automobile, said body being provided with the usual .front and rear seats -3-- and -4 to the opposite sides of which the top is connected by front and rear upright bows -5- and -6-, the front and rear ends of the top being adapted to be held in their extended positions by brace bows -7- and8-. The front end of the top is additionally held in its extended position by the usual straps 9-, the lower ends of which may be connected in any well-known manner to the body or chassis of the vehicle.

igidly secured to each side of the front seat is a laterally projecting arm -10- having an upstandin lug -1lprovided with a substantially semi-spherical socket of chamois skins and other utensils used in cleaning the vehicle.

The main object, therefore, of my present invention is to provide means whereby the bows may be easily and quickly attached to the body of the vehicle or to each other to firmly hold the top in its extended or closed. position without extra fastening means other than the locking members which are bows. Another object is to make these interlockm on? within the other without lost motion, thereby avoiding relative vibration or rattle 12 which communicates with an elon-- gated slot -13 centrally in the inner side of the lug -11 and of less transverse width than the adjacent portion of the 5 socket -12 forming opposite flanges 14. This slot is disposed in a vertically inclined plane at an angle with the normal vertical position of the upright portion of the bow -5- and extends through the upper side of the lug for receiving a cylindrical stud -15 on the lower end of the adjacent arm of the bow 5, said stud being provided with an elongated head -16 of substantially the same transverse width as the cylindrical stud -15 and slot -13. The head -16 is elongated in the direction of length of the bow -5 to substantially the diameter of the spherical socket -12 and projects equi-distant from and at opposite sides of the cylindrical stud -15, thereby forming shoulders which are adapted to interlock with the flanges -14 of the lug -11 when the bow is in its normal upright position for extending the top. It therefore follows that when it is desired to connect or disconnect the bow 5 to or from the lug -11, it is simply necessary to rock said bow rearwardly or until the elongated head -16 is registered 30 with the slot -13 in which position the adjacent arm of the bow 5 may be lifted upwardly a suiiicient distance to disengage the head -16 from the lower side of the flange -1%, whereupon the adjacentarm of the bow may be sprung inwardly to withdraw the head -16 through the slot -13, thereby entirely disengaging the adjacent arm of the bow from the arm -10-. This bow 5 may then be carried rearwardly and attached to lugs -17 having a socket -18 and slot -19 corresponding in form and size to the socket -12 and slot -13, previously described except that the slot -19 is inclined in a reverse direction or upwardly and forwardly. It therefore follows that in order to couple the bow -5 to the lug -17 it is necessary to tilt the bow -5 forwardly or until the elongated portion of the head 5 -16 is registered with the slot -19, whereupon the head -16 will readily enter the slot and drop into the socket -18 so that when the bow is rocked rearwardly toward the bow 6, the head 55 -16 will be interlocked with the corresponding flanges of the lug -17 at the base of the socket -18, thereby retaining the bow in its folded position against accidental displacement.

The rear end of each of the side bars of the brace bow -7- is provided with a cylindrical stud -20 and elongated head -21 corresponding to the stud -15 and head -16 previously described and 5 when the brace bow 'terlocked or rather when the brace bow -7- is adjusted for holding the front portion of the top in its extended position, this stud and head are interlocked with a lug -22 having a socket -23 and elongated slot 24. corresponding to the socket -12 and slot -13 previously mentioned for receiving the head -21 and stud -20. This slot -24 and head -21 are normally disposed at an angle with each other when in- 7 is adjusted for use but said brace bow may be disconnected from the coupling section -22 by rocking the brace bar upwardly until its stud -21 is registered with the slot 24., thus permitting the brace bow to be raised slightly and moved inwardly until the head -21 is withdrawn from the lug -22. The bow may then be lowered to register and interlock its studs -20 with similar underlying lugs 22 near the lower ends of the bow and just above the lugs -11. The lugs 22 are also provided with sockets -23 and slots -24! corresponding to the sockets -23 and slots -24 of the lug -22, the slots -24t being disposed at the same angle as the slot -2t so as to allow the stud -20 and head -21- to readily enter the corresponding slot in the socket in the lug -22' when the bow is lowered from its posit-ion assumed when inserting or removing it into or out of the lugs -22.

When the bow -7 is interlocked with the lugs 22 it is ready for folding backward toward the bow -5- which ma be done either before or after the bow 5 has been connected to the lugs -17 of the rear how 6 and when the bows are thus connected, they may be folded rearwardly and 5 backwardly one upon the other to the position shown in Fig. 9 and strapped together in the usual manner if necessary.

It is sometimes desirable to remove the entire top from the body and for this purpose the rear seat -6 is provided with fixed arms -2 having laterally projecting cylindrical lugs -26 and a radially elongated head -27 corresponding to the lug -15, head -16 and the front bow -5, while the lower ends of the bow -6- are provided with sockets -28 and elongated slots -29 of substantially the same form and size as the socket -18 and slot -19 of the adjacent lug -17, the 12( only difference being that the slot -29 opens from the underside of the socket instead of at the top and that it is disposed vertically or parallel with the pendant arms of the bow, while the radially elongated head 12 -27 is disposed at an angle with the bow or substantially parallel with the slot -19 in the lug -17 when the bow is in its upright position.

In order to remove the rear bow, it is nec 1E essary to loosen the back straps, curtain or other fastenings by which the rear end of the top is usually connected to the body of the vehicle and then rock the bow 6- forwardly or until the slot 29 is registered with the head 27, whereby the bow may be lifted and its sides sprung outwardly suflicient to disconnect them from the studs, this being usually done after the front bow has been interlocked with the lug 17 and the rear bow.

It is now clear that when the several bows are adjusted for use for extending the to as shown in Fig. 1, the radial slots of their several detachable couplings are disposed at an angle with the heads of their correspond ing studs which are seated in the adjacent sockets, thereby firmly holding the bows against relative movement in their respective supporting lugs and inasmuch as the elongated heads of the several studs fit closely in their respective sockets, any liability to rattle is reduced to a minimum.

he same is also true when the bows are folded downwardly one upon the other as shown in Fig. 9. The rear brace how 8 is preferably permanently hinged to the upright bow -6 by pivotal pins -30 as best seen in Figs. 3 and 4.

The operation of my invention will now be readily understood with reference to the foregoing description in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Vvhat I claim is:

1. A bow coupling for carriage tops comprising a pair of members, one of said members including a body having a lug projecting laterally therefrom and provided in its inner face with a segment-spherical recess and having an opening radially disposed thereto, the other of said members including a body portion having a cylindrical shank projecting therefrom adapted to fit said opening and a segment-spherical head on said shank having flattened sides spaced substantially the same distance as the diameter of said shank, the lug of the first mentioned member being provided with a slot leading from said recess and opening and inclined to the normal stress on said members, said slot being of dimensions to permit the passage of the head and shank when turned to an abnormal position.

2. A bow coupling comprising two members, one member having a substantially flat inner side and a continuous unbroken coninner sides vex outer side, the inner flat side having a radial slot opening from the periphery thereof, the portion of said member between the flat side and convex side being provided with a circular socket of greater diameter than the transverse width of the slot and having its side corresponding to the open side of the slot cut away, the other member having a cylindrical shank fitted in the slot and an enlarged head fitted in the socket, the head being elongated in one direction to substantially the diameter of the socket, while its width at right angles thereto is substantially equal to the diameter of the cylindrical portion.

3. In combination with a bow for a carriage top, coupling members secured to opposite ends of the bow and having substantially flat inner sides provided with radial sockets extending through the periphery thereof, said members having convex outer sides and circular sockets between sides and convex sides, said sockets being of greater diameter than the transverse width of the slots and provided with radial openings through their peripheries registering with and of substantially the same width as the corresponding slots, and supporting members for the bow having T-shape heads fitted in the slots and sockets, the width of the heads in one direction being substantially equal to that of the slots.

bow for carriage tops having each of its opposite sides provided with a pair of coupling members having substantially flat provided with radial slots opening throng the peripheries thereof, said members having convex outer sides and 01rcular sockets between the slotted inner sides and convex outer sides, the sockets being of greater diameter than the transverse width of their corresponding slots, supporting members having T-shape heads fitting in the slots and sockets of their respective coupling members on the bow, and an additional bow having its ends provided with T-shape heads fitted in the slots and sockets of the other corresponding coupling members.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand on this 6th day of May 1911.

ERNEST R. RHODES.

the slotted inner Witnesses:

H. E. CHAsE, E. F. SPEARING.

M Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. a 

